I have had my hand in the collective arts for over thirty years. Clay, photography, music, scrapbooking, and design gave way to painting in my twenties. What began as an informal hobby developed into a part-time career as painting proved the perfect right-brain balance to practicing law. In 2009, I began exhibiting in juried fine art shows across the country. Ten years later, I loosely keep my toe in the water as an attorney but am fortunate to work almost exclusively as an artist.
Completely self-taught as an artist, I work predominantly in oils, favoring their rich pigments. I utilize a wet-on-wet technique which allows for extended working time and sophisticated blending. I paint intuitively and have no idea what a piece will look like until it is finished.
I construct multiple layers of oils with brushes and palette knife, scratching through to reveal earlier colors and add depth. I continue with this process until the composition feels balanced, engaging, and complete: nothing more to add or take away. I sometimes include gestures of charcoal, colored pencils, wax crayons, or oil pastels. The careful viewer is rewarded with an undercurrent of subtle details and complex tonality. I alternate painting on stretched canvas, heavyweight paper, and wooden panels, enjoying the differing responsiveness of the various substrates. My works are nonrepresentational abstract and communicate through shape, composition, color, and texture. The common thread connecting my portfolio is a strong and vibrant palette.
I also create monotypes: paintings created on several plates and transferred onto paper via a large-format etching press. The layered plates of ink create a single image. I enjoy the unpredictability of the printmaking process. These works, also all originals, are enjoyable for me because they require analysis in addition to creativity. Printmaking necessitates remembering that what I paint first will end up on the top of the image, rather than in the background, and that colors will blend in unexpected ways as multiple plates of ink are combined. It is painting in reverse with considerable x-factor built into it, and the final composition is unknown until the last plate goes through the press. Monotypes offer a subtlety very different than thick layers of oils on canvas, and crossing between and among mediums makes for fresh work.
My influences are many but include Picasso, de Kooning, Chagall, Basquiat, Miro, Diebenkorn, and Dali, as well as contemporary artists Alexandra Nechita and Malcolm Liepke. I also am influenced on a subconscious level by my travels and surroundings. The varied colors of the road find their way into my paintings, always anchored by the sea-to-sky blues and sunshiny oranges of home. I find inspiration in life's separate and tangled moments and hope to convey that richness and poetry in my art.
I am honored to have won numerous awards across the country, among them Best in Painting, Best in Printmaking, and Best in Show. My work is exhibited in museums, galleries, and private and corporate collections nationally and internationally, including pieces in Bermuda, India, Venezuela, and Canada.
When I am not in the studio I enjoy running, hiking, spending time at the beach, traveling all over the world, cooking for friends (I cook how I paint: by feel and rarely with a recipe), photography, museums, a nice glass of wine, live music, organizing things, reading, nesting/renovating/gardening, NPR, and playing with my jack russell terriers. I have an affinity for rugs, horses, hot sauce, Moroccan tile, a true navy, vintage Christmas ornaments, and anything salt & vinegar flavored.
Special thanks to two friends who have been instrumental in this journey: to Daphne Covington, for taking me under her wing and patiently teaching me everything about being an artist; and to Mark Brown, for always making time to review my work and reminding me not to let the law get in the way of good art.
News: Lovely article from the Tampa Trib. https://www.tampabay.com/things-to-do/visualarts/gasparilla-festival-showcases-tampa-lawyers-art/2219241
